The present invention relates to a power conversion apparatus, and more particularly relates to a power conversion apparatus that can be preferably applied to a vehicle such as a hybrid car.
In recent years, in vehicles such as a four-wheeled vehicle, hybrid cars that use an engine being an internal combustion engine and an electric motor in cooperation for a drive system have been widely used.
In such hybrid cars, as one of an electronic control apparatus that operates an engine and an electric motor in a cooperated state, a power control apparatus that has a power conversion apparatus incorporated therein has been used. The power conversion apparatus is for inputting and outputting relatively large electric power. Therefore, a plurality of plate-like bus-bars made of a metal material are routed as electric wiring.
These bus-bars are routed in a case in which a plurality of semiconductor elements and the like that perform a switching operation at the time of power conversion are accommodated. Therefore, the bus-bars need to be routed in the case so as not to unnecessarily increase the size of the power conversion apparatus.
Further, such a power conversion apparatus handles relatively large power obtained by boosting a battery voltage or the like within the apparatus. Therefore, there are cases where it is necessary to measure voltage (potential) of an electric current path such as the bus-bar or the like in the power conversion apparatus.
Under such circumstances, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2012-210068 relates to an electronic control device of an electric motor, and discloses a configuration in which a second shunt resistor 18 that detects a drive current of the electric motor is provided in a bus-bar assembly 13 so that a resistor body 18a of the second shunt resistor 18 is made to abut on an upper surface of the bus-bar assembly 18, one side portion 18b of the second shunt resistor 18 is bonded to a conductive piece 27 through which the drive current of the motor passes, and one side portion 18c of the second shunt-resistor 18 is bonded to a heat transfer member 22. Further, connection terminals 18d, 18d respectively extended upward from the one side portions 18b and 18c are fixed to a control board 14 by soldering.